Ask Nothing

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"Everyone around him, including his PAs, became rich—except me. I was humiliated by Pramod on several occasions, including in public. He treated me like dirt."—Pravin Mahajan in his confession to the police on why he shot his brother Pramod Mahajan.With every passing day, the mystery deepens as to why Pravin Mahajan attempted to murder his brother, BJP general secretary and GenNext leader Pramod Mahajan. The official police take is that he confessed to pulling the trigger of the Browning pistol because he was humiliated and ignored. He said he was the poor brother of a rich and powerful man and that he had got "nothing out of the Rs 2,000 crore" of Pramod’s alleged wealth. Pravin has been charged under Section 307 of IPC for attempt to murder and under the Arms Act for illegally using a licensed weapon. The local court remanded him to police custody. But could such a murderous attack have been provoked suddenly by so apparently general a reason? Or is there a deeper, darker side to Pravin’s resentment that is being kept hidden from the public glare?

The police should, in normal circumstances, have been able to answer that. They have, but not satisfactorily enough. Top police officers believe they have everything—confession and witnesses—they need to make the case against Pravin Mahajan; there’s no gain in probing further although sources speak of financial and personal reasons behind the attack. The most crucial evidence for the police is Pravin’s surrender and confession that is part of the FIR. Legally speaking, the Mumbai police have a classic and clear case where the motive and the act are apparent, even unambiguous.

For now the police have ruled out any conspiracy. Arup Patnaik, joint commissioner (law and order), told Outlook: "I have been on the interrogation and I can say that Pravin is not dodging anything. No one can make him do anything that he doesn’t want and no one can talk him out of something he makes up his mind about, he’s that sort of a guy. I can say that he was harbouring the intention to harm Pramod Mahajan for about a year, his intention became the motive the last seven-eight days before he finally pulled the trigger." The question still remains: would a long-felt fraternal grudge drive a man to kill his brother? Or is there more to the case that the police are not revealing? Could it be a financial fallout between the brothers or something even more sensitive?

It’s not that the police are not aware of other angles. But they are under pressure to keep a lid on the sensational. Also, the family clearly does not want any dirty linen being washed in public and have been pulling strings to limit the investigations to the actual incident. Any wider probe might open a Pandora’s box of uncomfortable questions for the entire family and perhaps for the BJP’s financial sources.

But a scrutiny of Pravin’s past is being undertaken although it may not find its way into the case papers. His business dealings are being probed. Allegations that he had cheated a local businessman of Rs 8.5 lakh has come under the scanner. The police have called a business associate of his from Thane for questioning. His personal life, his relationship with his wife and children are being examined. The police have seized his mobile, laptop and pistol magazines from his house. Decoding computer and cellphone records could yield clues. But the question is: does the police have a free hand?

It all happened on Saturday, April 22 at 7.50 am. Pramod Mahajan was at his Worli apartment, opening yet another page of a newspaper from the large pile he read every morning and making desultory conversation with his younger brother Pravin. He would not have had the faintest idea that the next few moments would bring him the toughest of all his battles in life—the battle for life itself. Six days after the point-blank attack, he lay with three bullets in his body, in a heavily sedated state on the 14th floor of P.D. Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, on continuous dialysis to arrest kidney failure, on ventilator support to aid weakened lungs, two surgeries to repair portions of his pancreas and the aorta to the intestine, medication to keep the heart functioning and moderate to heavy packing for the liver that took the brunt of the gunshot fired by brother Pravin.

Meanwhile, some details of the case have been put on record. For instance, it’s known that Pravin had been trying desperately to contact Mahajan for the last one month and had been rebuffed on each occasion. Mahajan was not even taking Pravin’s calls in the last few months. Pravin came to know of his Delhi-based brother’s Mumbai visit from a newspaper and decided to confront him and kill him if the cold-shouldering continued.

The police described it as premeditated—Pravin had left his Thane home at 5.30 that morning in his Maruti Swift and reached Mahajan’s Purna apartment at Worli almost two hours later. En route he prayed at a temple and had chai at a roadside stall. Police sources say Pravin is telling part of truth but not the whole truth: why was he making every effort to speak to and meet Mahajan in the last one month? Was it only about the rebuff and the insults?

Insiders say there are two other issues here. One is about financial matters between the brothers. Having brought up Pravin, Mahajan tried to get him settled into various businesses. He even chose his bride Sarangi at a college function where he was the chief guest. It appears that Mahajan had trusted Pravin to handle some of his finances too but this reliance saw a slow downslide in the last couple of years after Mahajan began trusting his son-in-law Anand Rao more than Pravin. This is believed to be one of the core elements of Pravin’s resentment.

The second reason, insiders say, is about a deep-seated resentment Pravin had about something very personal. One man who knows more than most about these issues is former deputy CM Gopinath Munde, married to Mahajan’s sister Pradnya. But his lips are understandably sealed.

Those who know Pravin vouch that he never showed any resentment towards his brother. Still, it’s true that he did not do very well in life. His apartment in Jinja building, Thane, was bought by Mahajan. His agency for Apollo Tyres happened at Mahajan’s behest. He functioned as marketing consultant to Reliance Infocom, drawing a salary of Rs 63,000 per month, probably due to his brother’s influence. This salary cheque, incidentally, went directly to his wife Sarangi. Mahajan even cleared his brother’s bills at Shubha Hotel and Bar at Thane.

From the point of view of preparing the chargesheet, all the evidence was in hand except for a statement from Rekha Mahajan, the first to rush in and see her husband collapse. The family has all along maintained that Rekha is traumatised beyond measure and in no position to give a statement. Finally, on April 27, the police started recording her statement as well as that of her son Rahul Mahajan and brother-in-law Gopinath Munde.

A part of the answer to this gruesome mystery may perhaps lie with Pravin’s wife Sarangi. She has told the investigators that her husband was very troubled in the last few weeks and had gone off to Hardwar late last year. She also said she hid his pistol for many days but was forced to give it to him after he became abusive. Insiders say that Sarangi had expressed a desire to see Pramod Mahajan in hospital but was advised by her mother-in-law against it. Curiously, Sarangi and her 16-year-old twins, confined to their house since the incident, have not expressed a desire to meet or talk to Pravin.

Uncannily enough, Mahajan had been receiving calls through the last six months or so from astrologers that his life was in danger from an insider. But he ignored all warnings. What was also uncanny was that Pravin’s pistol licence, rejected by the Thane police in 1996, was finally granted by the then home minister Munde at Mahajan’s behest. Thus does life come a full circle.